president. johnson s speech shocked the world. the president would not run for reelection. and here was his offer, to finally end the war. for presidential candidate richard nixon, lbj s peace proposal advocacy political nightmare. nixon needed the democratic party to own the horror show of the vietnam war, not to solve it. and the steel butterfly, anna chennault saw lbj s proposed bombing halt as a military blunder. every time we stop the bombing, we only give the other side the opportunity to rebuild the military installation. the sooner we win this war, the better off we will be. richard nixon, and anna chennault, their views were closely aligned. there s definitely no crime in that. what if they went beyond words to deeds. what if they were to join hands